September 26, 2025
By JamRadio Newsdesk | Editorial Team
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has announced Digital ID Cards will become mandatory under his government, branded the “Brit Card” for all UK citizens and legal residents. Framed as a solution to illegal migration and shadow economy exploitation, the scheme is part of a broader architecture of control that includes live facial recognition technology, biometric data harvesting under the ETA immigration scheme, and the quiet expansion of U.S. surveillance firms like Palantir into British public infrastructure.
“You will not be able to work in the United Kingdom if you do not have digital ID. It’s as simple as that.”
????BREAKING: Keir Starmer unveils mandatory Digital ID cards—sold as border control. But critics say, this becomes infrastructure for exclusion. built for surveillance. Paired with facial recognition, ETA biometrics & Palantir’s NHS access, #BritCard #SurveillanceState #JamRadio pic.twitter.com/18kwE2efDk
— Jam Radio UK News (@Jam_RadioUK) September 26, 2025
Prime Minister Keir Starmer at the Global Progress Action Summit in London
Digital ID: The Infrastructure of Exclusion
The Brit Card will be mandatory for right-to-work checks, meaning anyone seeking employment must present digital proof of legal status. Labour claims this will “close loopholes” exploited by trafficking gangs and unscrupulous employers. But critics warn it won’t deter migration, it will simply push undocumented people deeper into the shadow economy, making them more vulnerable to exploitation and less able to access basic services.
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Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy insists the ID won’t be “mandatory to carry,” but it will be required to access housing, employment, and government services. This echoes the logic of hostile environment policies—where identity becomes conditional, and exclusion is automated.
Live Facial Recognition: Profiling in Real Time
Live facial recognition (LFR) is already deployed by UK police forces, scanning crowds against watchlists. Studies—including those by Big Brother Watch and the University of Essex—have shown racial bias and high error rates, particularly for Black and Asian faces. When paired with Digital ID, LFR becomes a real-time profiling engine, capable of flagging individuals based on migration status, criminal records, or predictive analytics when coupled with Ai.
This isn’t speculative. In 2020, the Metropolitan Police admitted using LFR to scan for people with outstanding warrants, including immigration violations. The technology’s expansion into public spaces, without clear oversight raises urgent constitutional questions.
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ETA and the Biometric Dragnet
The Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) scheme, part of the UK’s post-Brexit border overhaul, requires biometric data from millions of travellers. This includes facial scans, fingerprints, and behavioural data, stored in centralised databases with unclear retention policies.
The Home Office claims this will “streamline border security,” but privacy advocates warn it creates a biometric dragnet—where data collected for travel can be repurposed for policing, immigration enforcement, or predictive surveillance.
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Palantir, NHS Data, and the Corporate Capture of Identity
In parallel, U.S. tech firms like Palantir have gained access to NHS datasets, including patient records, treatment histories, and predictive models. Palantir, whose origins lie in military-grade surveillance now manages parts of the NHS Federated Data Platform, raising concerns about data sovereignty, consent, and commercial exploitation.
Meanwhile, Microsoft and Amazon are building data centres across the UK, consolidating the infrastructure that will store and process Digital ID and biometric data. This creates a dependency on foreign firms to manage the architecture of British identity—a strategic vulnerability with profound implications.
The Danger: A Surveillance State by Stealth
Together, these systems form a surveillance stack:
Digital ID validates identity.
ETA harvests biometrics.
U.S. firms store and analyse it all.
This isn’t just about migrants—it’s about everyone. Once normalized, these tools expand into housing, healthcare, education, and protest spaces. The migrant crisis becomes the justification, but the target is broader: dissent, difference, and autonomy.
What We Must Demand
Transparency: Full disclosure of data-sharing agreements between UK agencies and foreign tech firms.
Oversight: Independent regulation of biometric systems and Digital ID infrastructure.
Consent: Opt-in models for data collection, not coercive defaults.
Resistance: A public reckoning with the erosion of liberty disguised as progress.
